A Pleasant Surprise, Again: Beelzebub ED 3

Lack of time means in general means lack of time to watch anime, which makes catching up a little chore and generally ends up with me getting to things a little “later” than everyone else. Like with the second ending of Beelzebub, I come to the third ending several episodes behind, and it is at episode 24 where they switch openings and endings again. In this case, the song (“Nanairo Namida” by Tomato n’ Pine) is better than the second ED, but the ending animation wows me again (as it noticeably short-circuited ghostlightning months ago):

This time the direction was done from one Masashi Ishihama, and that name doesn’t quite ring a bell for me as much as Umetsu’s, despite actually speaking to him and getting an autograph (I think I did) from him at Otakon 2010. But on looking at some of the properties he’s worked on, he’s done animation and character design for a variety of works including the Read or Die works and Speed Grapher. But he’s also done a variety of recognizable OPs from other shows including Kamichu! and Welcome to the NHK! (Videos after jump)

In terms of character movements and cinematography, the term “hyper-realism” pops into mind as related to animation. There’s realism in terms of how the characters move and such, but not necessarily in how they’re portrayed moving or in how they’re “framed” moving as it’s not “realistic” based on how we expect such shots or movements. This is more so in the 3rd Beelzebub ED animation to me, but it adds to the effect and impression of yet another aspect of Kunieda as beauty. Though that could just be epic shaky and rotating cam. Hoping for another such animation in the future, and I’m starting to wonder if there’s a theme going on with having other animators have their way with things for no other reason than for fun (and maybe a love of Kunieda). I’d enjoy it if that was the case.